Bryan Pace/NYDNKadeem Jack (22) leads a Rutgers recruiting class that ranks in the top 10-15 in the country.

On the second day of June, Kadeem Jack walked into the Rutgers Athletic Center with absolutely zero fanfare. One of the nation’s top unsigned recruits for the class of 2011, Jack was paying what amounted to a courtesy visit to Rutgers and its new head coach, Mike Rice, who was on the job just 28 days.

Jack had offers from college basketball’s blue-blood programs — Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky — already in front of him but still chose to give Rutgers an audience out of respect for his relationship with Rutgers assistant coach Van Macon.

For nearly two hours Jack was given the Scarlet Knights’ sales pitch about academics, playing time, the Big East and the metropolitan-area market. Appetizing? Yes. But deal-closing? Hardly.

Then, Rice and his staff joined Jack in the coach’s office and closed the door.

“I gave them a chance, and Mike Rice just changed my whole perspective,” Jack recalled Tuesday. “He sold me on the whole school in 45 minutes.”

For 45 minutes the uber-intense Rice lauded, grilled and greased Jack to join a Scarlet Knights program that hasn’t been to an NCAA Tournament since seven months before the 6-8 forward was even born. For 45 minutes, Rice and his staff emphasized his key potential role in the program’s future and tried to convince Jack why he should eschew the traditional powers seeking his services in favor of Rutgers.

Wednesday the intensive recruiting begins to pay off.

National Signing Day is the first day the nation’s top high school basketball players can officially sign a Letter of Intent to play for a school for the 2011-12 season. Jack is one of seven players who will fax a letter to Piscataway this week officially minting what has been touted as the best recruiting class in school history.

Various recruiting websites have ranked Rice’s first full recruiting class anywhere from top 10 to top 15 in the country. But it was Jack — a 2010 recruit who is prepping this year at Central Jersey Each-One-Teach-One Academy in Somerset — whose commitment not only grabbed everyone’s attention but also opened the floodgates for the rest of the class.

“This is a really good program class,” said Evan Daniels, national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. “But (getting Jack) legitimized them a little. Kadeem Jack’s a terrific talent. That sent a little message to the rest of the guys that (Rutgers isn’t) here to just hang around. This is a class that’s going to help them change the program around.”

It’s allowed Rice — with the help of assistants David Cox, Macon, Jimmy Martelli and Jim Carr — to make one of the biggest splashes in recruiting this year.

“(Recruiting) was the first thing that I could control after hiring my staff,” said Rice, who is prohibited by NCAA regulations from discussing recruits until a school has received their official commitment. “It doesn’t mean any one of these players is going to be a superstar, it just means that they’re the foundation of a resurgent program.”

A foundation that began over one intense 45-minute meeting that solidified Jack as his Pied Piper for the class. When he began the recruiting process, Jack didn’t have Rutgers anywhere on his list.

“At the time, the type of player that I was, I was looking at things that were already established,” Jack said. “Places like Texas, Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky. But after meeting with Coach Rice I realized we could change that program around. That’s when Rutgers entered the picture.”